(Credits: Far Out / YouTube Still)
Tue 18 November 2025 17:15, UK
Not to state the blindingly obvious, but Harrison Ford doesn’t give a shit what you think about his movies. Even the ones that failed, and failed spectacularly, aren’t going to be dragged over the hot coals of criticism by the icon who more than likely played the lead role.
Some actors have been left with no other option but to hold their hands up and admit they missed the mark once enough time has passed and enough dust has settled for them to take off their promotional hat and replace it with an honest one, but not Ford, with Force 10 from Navarone being the exception.
Indiana Jones and the Crystal Skull became one of the most widely despised blockbusters of the modern era, but the leading man didn’t have a bad word to say about it, which might have something to do with the long-held suspicion that he holds the fedora-wearing adventurer closer to his heart than any other character he’s ever played, not that he’d admit such a thing.
As for Dial of Destiny, which tanked at the box office to bring Indy’s iconic five-film tenure to an ignominious conclusion? “Shit happens,” he said, refusing to lose any sleep over the fact that one of cinema’s most enduring fictional figures was left to ride off into the sunset by losing a fortune.
It’s best not to ask him about Star Wars, though, since he continues to bristle at the mere mention of a galaxy far, far away. It’s always felt as though he viewed Han Solo as a job and Indiana Jones as a legacy, which could handily explain why he vehemently disagreed with Steven Spielberg when he mounted a passionate defence of Temple of Doom.
The director has confessed that he “wasn’t happy” with Indy’s second outing at all, describing it as “too dark, too subterranean, and much too horrific,” confessing that “there’s not an ounce of my personal feeling” in the entire picture. Regardless of how you feel about it, what’s undeniably true is that Raiders of the Lost Ark is one of the best movies of its kind that’s ever been made, and the follow-up isn’t.
That doesn’t mean that it’s shite, but it’s nowhere near as good as its predecessor. It’s still got plenty of fans, though, and even if Spielberg isn’t one of them, Ford definitely is. “I don’t think it was bogus,” he helpfully clarified to Chuck Davis in the late 1980s, shortly before the franchise was firmly restored to its former glories when he teamed up with Sean Connery for The Last Crusade.
“I think it was an artistic decision to take the impression of the first one, take it out for a walk on the dark side,” he mused. “It was a conscious decision. It worked to whatever extent. There was some drawback to it. We lost a certain percentage of our audience, the younger members of our audience. And reasonably so.”
Temple of Doom is no Raiders of the Lost Ark, but it isn’t Kingdom of the Crystal Skull, either. Ford refused to decry Indy’s darker second film, whereas Spielberg had no problem voicing his regrets. It’s a matter of opinion at the end of the day, and the two key creative players made themselves clear over which side of the fence they fell on.
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